The Niterói (1836), a review published by young Brazilian students living in Paris - Domingos José Gonçalves de Magalhães, Manuel Araújo Porto Alegre, and Francisco Sales Torres Homem -, expressed the inclination of major literary reviews in the 19th century, which was to stimulate enthusiasm for literature, arts and sciences. It profited from the contact established between its editors and French intellectuals, as much as from philosophical ideas that triumphed at the time. By analyzing memoirs, letters and essays published at the Niterói, we wished to recognize the proposition of its publishers of confirming nationality through the precept of historicism. It shows that arts and literature were perceived as grounds upon which the nation should be built in order to accomplish its independence.
historiography; historicism; press